Possibility Thinking

In response to the common question, "what does this actually look like in schools?" David Warlick has constructed his many ideas and visions for Web 2.0 technology in public schools into the format of an entertaining story entitled, "A Day in the Life of Web 2.0." In his blog, 2 Cents Worth, he describes his article as "a miandering tour of a handful of applications of read/write tools in the culture of a school."

I found Warlick's story and vision very impressive. The way he displayed teachers, students, administrators and parents all using the technology made education much more public than it often is. Teachers and administrators were not only reading each other's blogs to gather ideas from each other and to incorporate units across different subjects, students and parents were also enjoying a more public nature of education. A great example about how regular podcasts could serve to make what happens in the classroom more public follows:

Mr. P begins adjusting the volume on the microphone that hangs from his classroom ceiling. Today's discussion about The Grapes of Wrath will be recorded and posted in an audio file as a class podcast, as are all significant class presentations and discussions. Students, parents, community members, and other educators subscribe to his podcast programs. In fact, on the other side of town, Mrs. B, the parent of one of Mr. P's students, is listening to a podcast classroom conversation about a science fiction short story the students recently read. She and other parents subscribe to the podcasts so they can more easily engage their children in conversations about school.

It's very exciting to think how this kind of exchange could solve the problem of parents feeling out of the loop or uninvolved in the children's' education. I think it also brings a greater sense of value to the work that students do for class and the discussions that they have. Recording student work and broadcasting it automatically gives the connotation that this dialogue is worthy of other people listening to it. It intrinsically encourages a higher caliber of student thoughts and input.

What I'm moving into now, is not only a sense that education is more public, but also that the purpose and audience of student work is more authentic and realized. "All assignments in Ms. L's class are turned in via blogs because she finds that their conversational nature encourages students to think and write in more depth than traditional formal essays or short answer assignments. Another advantage of receiving assignments in blog format is that both she and her students can subscribe, which means all of the kids' blogs appear in her aggregator, and students can reap the benefits of seeing each other's work." Clearly the awareness of other students reading a student's work will give that student a better audience awareness. The "conversational nature" of the writing is just what students may need to feel that their writing, their reading, their critical ideas have purpose and have a real audience.

I think this story of what technology in the classroom could look like is brilliant. It did not strike me as a bells and whistle dance wherein educators were getting excited about technology as a magic fix. I really felt that Warlick relied on good pedagogy and used the technology available to support good teaching and communication efforts. This is the kind of implementation of technology that could really be useful to improving the kind of critical thinking and literacy development that English educators should already be striving towards.

A Day in the Life of Web 2.0
October 15, 2006
by David Warlick
Complete Article

A Day in the Life of Web 2.0
October 16, 2006 at 2:05 pm
by David Warlick
Complete Article